Mary Sullivan

At Home, At War

For the last year, I have been developing a series of research projects and performances in different abandoned military sites on Bere Island. These sites are potent reminders of our colonial history and the types of political regimes that have existed on this island. My work aims to subvert these historical and political sites to speak to more gendered forms of colonisation and regimentation. Paralleling the domestic and the military, the work draws out the repetitive nature of domestic chores with the drill and precision of military discipline. Attending to the function of dressage, I seek to highlight the subtle performativity of uniform in the classification of roles and sensibilities in society. The performance of gender, identity and in/equality is investigated through different contexts and media to address the physiological and psychological tensions between the bodies we inherit and the head spaces we inhabit.